5.  The applicant was born in 1928 and lives in Bene Ayish, Israel.
6.  In 1990 the applicant emigrated from the USSR to Israel and thereby lost the USSR nationality. Prior to emigrating, he had been receiving an old‑age pension from the Soviet authorities. Once the applicant left the USSR, the payments were discontinued in accordance with USSR pensions law as applied at the material time.
7.  In 2006 the applicant brought civil proceedings against the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation (“the Pension Fund”) seeking the restoration of the payment of his old-age pension.
8.  On 26 May 2006 the Velikiye Luki Town Court found in the applicant’s favour and ordered the Pension Fund to restore pension payments to him as from 15 June 1998. The court found, inter alia, that although the pension had initially been awarded in accordance with USSR legislation, that legislation remained applicable in the Russian Federation. The court interpreted the relevant legal provisions in the light of the Constitutional Court’s judgment of 15 June 1998. On 1 August 2006, the Pskov Regional Court upheld this judgment on appeal and it became final.
9.  However, on 16 March 2007, following a request lodged by the Pension Fund, the Presidium of the Pskov Regional Court quashed the final judgment by way of supervisory review and rejected the applicant’s claim. The Presidium relied on the following facts: the applicant was not a Russian citizen, he did not reside in Russia, and no pension had been awarded to him in the Russian Federation in accordance with its legislation. The Presidium concluded that there was no basis under domestic law for pension payments to be awarded to the applicant.
10.  The applicant’s spouse, Mrs Lyubov Gorfunkel, faced a legal problem identical to that raised by the applicant in the present case: a judgment of the Velikiye Luki Town Court of 26 May 2006, which ordered the Pension Fund to restore her pension payments, was upheld by a final decision of the Pskov Regional Court on 1 August 2006. Both decisions were quashed on supervisory review by a decision of the Presidium of the Pskov Regional Court of 13 April 2007. Mrs Gorfunkel filed a complaint with the Court, which joined her application with nineteen similar applications in the case of Tarnopolskaya and Others v. Russia (nos. 11093/07 et al., 7 July 2009, final on 28 June 2010). The Court found a violation of Article 6 of the Convention and of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention in respect of all twenty applicants on account of the quashing of the judgments in their favour by way of supervisory review. Mrs Gorfunkel did not claim any award in respect of pecuniary damage. The Court awarded each applicant 3,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non‑pecuniary damage.
11.  The Court’s judgment in the case of Tarnopolskaya and Others v. Russia served as a legal basis for the quashing of the decision of the Presidium of the Pskov Regional Court of 13 April 2007 and the reinstatement of the judgment of the Velikiye Luki Town Court of 26 May 2006.
12.  On an unspecified date the Federal Bailiff Service asked the Velikiye Luki Town Court to explain whether Mrs Gorfunkel’s pension had to be recalculated in accordance with amendments to pensions legislation.
13.  By a ruling of 26 January 2011 the Velikiye Luki Town Court explained that Mrs Gorfunkel’s pension was to be calculated according to a method that would take into account all recalculations and adjustments that had taken place after 15 June 1998 in accordance with Russian law. In particular, the court found as follows:
“... during the period of time from 20 May 1990 until now the amount of pension due to Mrs Gorfunkel, as well as to other pensioners, has been repeatedly changed for various reasons, one of them having been amendments to pensions legislation ...
... Restoration of pension payments for Mrs Gorfunkel in the amount set in 1990 cannot meet the generally recognised legal principles of equality and justice, and, with regard to the position of the European Court of Human Rights based on the provisions of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 ..., would violate Mrs Gorfunkel’s right to respect for her property.
Taking the above-mentioned [factors] into consideration, the court deems it proper to explain that ... the writ of execution [which orders the Pension Fund to restore pension payments to Mrs Gorfunkel as from 15 June 1998], with due regard to the generally recognised legal principles of justice and equality, provides for the necessity of paying Mrs Gorfunkel a pension in the amount that would have been due to her on 15 June 1998, taking into account the recalculations, indexation and corrections that have been carried out since ... the pension was awarded to her on 20 May 1990 ...”